The View Hosts Battle Over Paula Deen: ‘White People In The South Can Be Nostalgic,’ But Not Uncritical
On Monday, the hosts of ABC’s The View debated whether former Food Network host Paula Deen should be vilified and ostracized from public life for admitting during a court deposition that she had used racial slurs in private in the past and was enamored with an antebellum way of life. The hosts were conflicted over the issue with one host noting that White Southerners can be nostalgic for the pre-Civil War way of life, by the have to exhibit some empathy for the plight of African-Americans as well.
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“I don’t know what to say about her,” said Joy Behar, “because it is free speech on the one hand and, yet, it’s so heinous.” She quoted HBO host Bill Maher who said that Deen is no different from hip hop artists who use the ‘N-word’ regularly.
“I think comparing her to the rappers who say it is quite a different thing,” Sherri Shepherd replied.
“I’ll tell you what did it for me,” said Whoopi Goldberg. “At one point she was talking about how her grandfather – great, great grandpa, had slaves and when they were free he took himself out. He killed himself. And that way of life, you know, nostalgia for that way of life – I think you can’t really, in 2013, have nostalgia for slavery.”
“White people in the South can be nostalgic for it, but they have to empathize with the other side of it,” Behar added.
“I don’t care who says it, whether it’s a rapper or its Paula Deen, it’s’ wrong. Boom,” declared HLN host Nancy Grace to applause.
Goldberg said that it was a bad idea for the NAACP to “bury” the N-word in 2007 because they were preventing children from learning what lessons they could from racism in the past.
Watch the clip below via ABC:
